January 11, 2011

Last Thursday afternoon I got a phone call. It was the school nurse informing me that she had Henry in the health room. He had thrown up in class. Oh dear. Apparently there is something going around the school.

After our little visit to the health room, I was walking Henry from the school to the car and asked him, "Did you make it to the bathroom?" Henry shook his head and said, "No," as he looked down at the ground. "Did you at least get to the trash can?" Henry's silence answered my question. Then I asked, "What did the kids say?" Henry quietly said, "I don't want to talk about it." Fair enough.

Last night, a couple hours after putting the kids to bed, we heard Maren stir followed by that horrible retching sound. Ugh. She was up ALL night puking. I ended up in Henry's bed so I could get Maren to the toilet when necessary, Henry ended up in our bed, and Randy slept downstairs on the couch-- a much better option than spending the night in bed with Henry. That kid never stops moving, even in his sleep.

This morning I called the school to let them know Maren would not be in. The secretary asked what her symptoms were and I told her, "Puking all night." She asked if she had any of the diarrhea that sometimes accompanies this particular virus that has been going around. I was silent for a second and said, "No. But thank you for the heads up." Sure enough, a few hours later we had diarrhea.

So how are Randy and I preparing for our turn with this stupid virus? Brownies and ice cream of course. The brownies are baking in the oven as I type this. If I'm going to be puking and having diarrhea for 24 hours, hells yeah I'm gonna get a few extra calories in!